Many players in the audio industry that have used principles of HRTF in audio devices to recreate virtual surround sound. Some device manufacturers rely solely on the principles of HRTF, and utilise filters on sounds to alter the phase and gain of those sounds which provide positional cues. This is a very rudimentary method and does not work on most users effectively as certain sounds only appear louder or softer or merely seem to echo in each ear, instead of accurate reproduction of sounds to mimic the spatialisation effects as experienced in real-life. Listening to sounds via bone conduction, for example, through commercially available “bonephones”, may seem to produce sounds with stereo effects, but true 3D-spatialisation effects have yet to be achieved in current technologies.
Others use FFT (Fast Fourier transform) convolution to process a number of variables, such as the phase, gain, as well as refractions of sounds off the user's head, pinnae and body. This is a more accurate method, but many such technologies provide sound filters that are short and can only provide a limited number of positional cues before the digital signal processing (DSP) begins processing other new sounds.
Both these methods will give sounds with positional cues that the user's brain can use to determine the position of a sound, but are associated with DSPs that can only process algorithms and variables at 34 MIPS (Millions of Instructions per Second).
In addition, due to variations in the shape, size and pinnae of the ears across individuals of a population, how a sound is perceived is also different across individuals. Thus, while select individuals consisting of approximately 20% of the population may be able to experience the virtual surround sound through current offerings of HRTF devices, the sound reproduction remains unconvincing for the remaining others. The low rate of true reproduction of virtual surround sound in current offerings of HRTF devices is also due to the fact that positional cues of recorded sounds are based on a single reference recording of a mannequin's head. In the case for most gamers, the virtual surround sound that is reproduced in current generation HRTF technologies are not suited for high-precision gaming where accurate surround sound environments are contributing factors towards a gamer's overall speed, precision and control in a game. Hence, there is an unmet need for headset devices which can provide true-to-life positional audio/virtual surround sound and which can be customised for consistent optimum audio performance for all gamers.
Further, as speed and accuracy are of significant importance to gamers an individual gamer's familiarity and consistency in the audio settings and/or audio device configurations may determine how one performs in the game. Typically, frequent gamers have a specific set of customised device configurations uniquely suited for their game play. For example, an individualised combination of keys specific to a gamer's preference or optimized for a gamer's performance on a user interface (UI) device such as a keyboard can be programmed to initiate an event during gameplay. In the case of audio/headset devices, should a calibration system exist, such calibration settings can also be programmed and saved. Further, owing to the unique physical qualities of each individual's ears, there can be calibration of audio settings and/or headset device settings to optimise virtual surround sound performance for the individual. Gamers often do not break away from this set of configurations as it allows them familiarity and consistency, and hence speed and control during gaming.
It is not uncommon for gamers to be equipped with their own set of preferred peripheral devices. Computer peripheral devices include but are not limited to headset/audio devices, computer mice, keyboards, handheld gaming consoles and joysticks. Known computer peripheral devices are typically interchangeable and can be used with different computer systems and platforms. Most computer operating systems are able to automatically configure the coupled computer peripheral device for use with the computer operating system without the need for installation of a specific driver. However, when these peripheral devices are detected by the computing system, a generic device control configuration is often assigned to them and whatever customised settings previously configured by the user will be lost and replaced with default settings. This poses much inconvenience and hassle to gamers when they enter LAN-gaming shops or utilise computers for their gaming pleasures as they would have to reconfigure the control settings to suit their preferences.
There is, therefore, an apparent need for a method whereby these device settings and configurations can be stored and retrieved on the fly so that users can do away with the hassle of re-configuring their control settings, including audio settings, whenever they use a different platform to access the different peripheral devices, including different audio devices.